This Brave New World review contains no spoilers.
In Brave New World, the filmmaker character of Helm Watson, played by Hannah John Kamen, laments having to create yet another sequel to her successful feelie series, Pleasure Bomb. “They want more,” she says. “I don’t know more!” Such is the paradox of Peacock having adapted Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel after years of audiences being subjected to the dystopian stories of The Hunger Games and The 100 among many others. The book was an innovation, satirically criticizing the utopian novels of the time, but the reinterpretation now illogically appears to be derivative of the sci-fi genre its source material inspired.
“It’s the dilemma of being a creative and striving for perfection, to better the next one, to always give the audience more and challenging yourself,” John Kamen told us in an interview about her character’s challenges, adding, “There are many similarities in the creative world!” All too true! Adaptations should never be judged by the books they’re based on, and in this case, that principle only highlights the flaws of the standalone story of Peacock’s Brave New World. Whereas in the book, the characters questioning their perfect world was an inspired bit of insight in its time, their dissatisfaction is almost a foregone conclusion in the series.
From the very start of Brave New World, Bernard Marx (Harry Lloyd) clearly questions the monogamy of Lenina Crowne (Jessica Brown Findlay) because he wants her for himself, and their trip to the Savagelands illustrates how an exposure to even a sanitized version of life before the utopia of New London is dangerous in the extreme, even without the native rebellion within. As a result, there are few surprises, and the story becomes a matter of watching characters release their own suppressed characteristics. The dissatisfying nature of this narrative makes it hard to invest in the underlying mystery of what World Controller Mond (Nina Sosanya) is up to in the background.
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